


I'm Tired So Let's Slow Dance on the Roof, Okay?

by ChronicCanon



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akuma Attack, Angst with a Happy Ending, Explosions, F/M, Final Exams, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluffy Ending, Hugs, Light Angst, Minor Original Character(s), Original Akuma, Platonic Relationships, Slow Dancing, Summer Vacation, Very Minor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-20 10:30:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17020995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChronicCanon/pseuds/ChronicCanon
Summary: It's the beginning of summer vacation, and there's an akuma attack. In the aftermath, Ladybug and Chat Noir are left in a new situation.Point is, they slow dance. On the roof.





	I'm Tired So Let's Slow Dance on the Roof, Okay?

After a week's worth of final exams, Marinette was hard-pressed to find any reason not to just flop down on her bed and sleep for a year. This was just a regular finals season, and she could put off worrying about the  _bac_ for at least until the end of summer break, but it was grueling nonetheless.

In all the brain-drain haze, she said hello to her parents and somehow walked up the stairs without bumping into anything or falling, until she flung herself face-first down onto her bed. She stayed there and let the pillow become one with her face.

"Marinette, remember to breathe," Tikki said, prodding at Marinette's head until she reluctantly came up for air.

"I'm going to nap. If there's an akuma attack, let me at least sleep through the first 5 minutes of it, okay?"

She quickly fell asleep. In her slumber, she did't have any time to worry about how she should brush her teeth, or when she would wake up, or about taking off her shoes.

Tikki covered Marinette in her blanket and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Sweet dreams!"

Marinette didn't even stir.

Tikki looked up through the skylight. She hoped this would be a good time for rest, for the people of Paris, and for its defenders. And for maybe a whole twenty minutes, all was calm.

And then there was an explosion.

Marinette gasped for air as she looked around for Tikki.

"What?"

She jumped up, fumbling with the blanket, heart racing.

"What was that?"

"I'm not sure. Just transform, Marinette!"

"Is it an akuma? Did it come from the bakery? Where was it?"

"I don't know. I only saw that it's outside. Hurry up!"

Marinette let out a shaky breath, and soon Ladybug emerged.

She followed the smoke, which she hadn't even looked for previously, with all the adrenaline coursing through her veins. She'd been through worse, of course, but getting woken up was wreaking all sorts of havoc on her focus.

In the distance, Ladybug could see Chat Noir's figure weaving up and down as he crossed the roofs of Paris with the help of his trusty staff.

They would probably meet up with each other closer to the site of the explosion. Hopefully there weren't any casualties. And even more hopefully, there was something the two of them could help with on the scene.

Ladybug couldn't help but feel some mixed emotions seeing that there was actually an akumatized person in front of her. She was so tired. She didn't want to deal with complex emotions like relief there wasn't a terrorist attack but also empathy at this person who was clearly in enough emotional turmoil to be akumatized and fear that there may be people who were hurt.

"Milady!"

Char Noir had already caught up to her. Ladybug would have greeted her partner if she hadn't been busy sizing up the villain before her. The villain was tall, but they'd fought taller. He was strong, but they'd fought stronger. His object of akumatization was very clearly his sunglasses, which stood out the most from the rest of his film noir-style costume, flowing overcoat and all.

Ladybug grabbed Chat Noir's stick from his hands and hit the glasses on the bridge. As it connected and the akuma was unceremoniously released, Ladybug asserted, "No!"

She circled her yo-yo to to give it some momentum and flung it at the butterfly, proclaiming "No more!"

Ladybug released the akuma up to the sky and said, "Bye!"

"Oh," Chat Noir sighed. After all the drama of a literal explosion, there was very little to be done now. The healing wave made quick work, as it usually did, of all the damages. He watched as the soot-blackened walls of the nearest building returned to the usual gray from the accumulation of dirt over the years. "Well done, milady, but a little anti-claw-mactic, don't you think?"

"Yeah, yeah. Can you take it from here?" Ladybug gestured towards the man on the ground who was asking them "What happened?"

"Is there something bothering you?" Chat asked, making his way to the man and offering his hand to help him to his feet.

Ladybug let out a deep breath, clutching the staff a bit tighter without even realizing it.

"It's fine," she replied, putting on a smile. Of course, when her partner looked to her, as he couldn't help but do, he noticed in an instant how she was being disingenuous. He had spent long enough staring at her face and working with her in trying situations to really be able to read her like a book.

"Do you know how to get back from here, sir?" Ladybug asked the man.

The man looked around, clearly trying to get his bearings on the situation.

"You're in the 21st arrondissement," Chat Noir offered.

"I'll just use my phone," the man dismissed, punctuated with a deflated laugh and an awkward grin.

"Are you sure you don't need any more help?" Ladybug asked. "Or do you want to talk about it?"

"No, no, it's fine. Just got upset with a gig I didn't get. It's fine, honestly. Thanks!"

With that, he left.

Ladybug gave the scene a once-over to check if there was anyone else in the area, maybe a bit shaken by the situation. She couldn't exactly follow the man; after all, he was and adult and it always felt awkward trying to metaphorically hold the hands of someone older than them, and more importantly, he seemed  _over it_. It was done. It was over. With a slump of shoulders unconsciously tensed, sometimes, Ladybug ceded, emotions just ended, the time for panic simply finished.

"I'll be off, then," Ladybug announced with a throw of her yo-yo and a stabilizing little tug. "Bug out!"

"Wait!" Chat called out to her. "You forgot to give me back my stick!"

"Oh, what?"

She looked at the staff in her hand and stopped on the nearest feasible roof to wait on. She couldn't just wait for him down on the street because that would just make it more difficult for her to find her. If she had remembered something so simple she wouldn't be waiting here. She brushed around some of the dirt that had accrued on the roof, fidgeting with her foot so she wouldn't think so much about how she was just standing and waiting.

Ladybug hated it, but she knew she had to accept that sometimes she couldn't be in control of every situation.

"I'm up here," she called out.

Almost as soon as she'd said it, Chat Noir's head poked out from one of the neighboring buildings. When they made eye contact, he gave an innocent smile that soon turned mischievous.

As he made a running leap, he exclaimed, "I win!"

Ladybug, tired and a bit confused, cocked her head to this side when no explanation came, and she'd seen that he'd landed safely. "What?"

"I just won superhero hide-and-seek,  _and..._ ," he joked, extending his hand. Once he got his staff back, he continued, "I just played the easiest and also _only_ game of reverse fetch, _ever_!"

As much as Ladybug recognized and appreciated how he was trying to cheer her up, this just wasn't enough to turn her mood today.

"Listen, Chat Noir," she began, looking away from him, towards the street where the smoke had so ominously billowed and plumed overhead just a few short minutes prior, "thanks for trying, but I'm just not feeling it today. Can you take over for patrols today?"

He furrowed his brow at the sound of that, laying his head in his hands, leaning on his staff. He replied, "I sure can, but is there something up? Feline under the weather, purr-haps?"

"No-"

"Work troubles?"

"No."

"Family stuff?"

"Also no, thankfully," she replied, curtly, crossing her arms.

"Then why so glum, chum?"

"I just feel like I've had enough, okay? It's been a long day."

"Longer than the long nights we spend chasing villains until dawn together? And that's not even counting the stretches of days where lots of attacks happen in really short succession."

"I'm just tired. I feel like I've reached and I need to go away and chill for a while. I've had enough," Ladybug restated, curling into herself and looking down, defeated by her own admission.

"I'm sorry," Chat Noir replied, "And I know there isn't much I can do to make you feel better, but-"

He trailed off, recognizing in her disposition then the nights when he felt like he needed to run, run far, far away, into the night just to have some freedom. That was where he differed from Ladybug, he'd long since decided. Their times of freedom and responsibility were switched.

"Can I hug you?" he asked.

She looked up at him, her voice barely louder than a stage whisper as she walked closer, "Please do."

She breathed into the embrace. It wasn't as though she didn't get enough support from her friends or at home. But it was different with Chat Noir. This was different, and it felt so needed, him wrapping his arms around her, the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, and the beating of his heart.

Marinette wondered how she couldn't see it before. If she could just reach out, just exist for this short little moment in time, with the one person she had come to trust most in the world, with her life, with her friendship, her patience, her ideas and quick fixes. Maybe it was because she didn't have a countdown to tell her when to time out, but she felt like she could stay there forever and a day.

"Thank you."

He tightened his embrace like it was the only thing he could do to ground her in the world of the living.

"Of course," he murmured. "I'll always be right here."

Ladybug couldn't help but smile, but in the back of her mind, she considered what she could be doing with her time. Maybe she could be on patrol, watching to protect the city from harm. Maybe she could be helping out her parents in the bakery, or be asleep-

"You still seem tense, milady."

"I'm just a little agitated. That's all. Like I can't help but want to move my feet and _go_ somewhere, or  _do_ something."

"You don't need to be doing something for others every second of your life, you know," he affirmed, quietly, but assuredly, as though he was saying it to himself every bit as much as he was to his partner as she leaned into him, enveloping him.

"But," he continued, and Ladybug could practically feel the thought forming in his head as he spoke, "I do think there might be a way to fight that antsy feeling!"

He stepped back slowly, so as not to break the hug too forcefully or too soon. He extended his arm and stepped back to swoop dramatically downwards, holding onto her hand delicately, as he'd practiced for years to do, in countless etiquette classes he'd only now had a reason to be thankful for.

"May I have this dance?"

It was so simple and so corny, but it was exactly  _that_  drama which got a smile to creep onto Ladybug's face.

"Of course," she said, with a small nod and a coarse curtsy.

They stepped back together, her hands around his neck, his hands around her hips. It was every bit a hug as before, and there was nobody else on the streets in the lazy summer afternoon to look up onto the rooftops. There was nobody there to pressure them to perform, or to remind them that the rest of the world still existed even if they closed their eyes.

The air was warm, their hearts even warmer. They danced, together, slow and steady. Nothing bad could happen that night.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it!  
> That slow dancing scene in Despair Bear was simply Not Enough Slow Dancing.


End file.
